Making a Great Poster

Marilee P. Ogren PhD

Ogren@mit.edu

A Great Poster is:

Readable
Unreadable = grammatical problems, complex, passive sentences,
misspellings

Legible
Illegible = small font, fancy font, too much text

Well organized
Disorganized = takes too much time to find the main idea, next idea, or data

Succinct
Not succinct = doesnt direct attention to punch line within 11 sec

Posters are visual communications tools that encourage

conversation with colleagues. They summarize and
advertise your work.

Great Posters are COMPACT and VISUAL

COMPACT:
Focus on ONE, clearly stated question with a clear
take-home message.

VISUAL:
Use diagrams, arrows, and other graphics to direct
attention rather than text.

How To Put a Poster Together?

FIRST: decide on a handmade

or software generated poster
SECOND: Develop a plan

Consider:

1. Audience
2. Content
3. Graphics
4. Text (Language)
5. Colors
6. Layout

1. Who is Your Audience?

Your audience determines the tone of your Poster.

Are they likely to be?
Specialists?
Wide-ranging disciplines?
Very general audience?
All three?

2. Whats Your Story?

Your central research question should be
reflected in the content of your:

Title
Text
Graphics
Conclusions

Determine a logical sequence for your story

e.g., methods, results, implications, conclusions
e.g, focus, justification, findings, conclusions

Show the sequence in your headings

3. What are Effective Graphics?

Graphics are the most important part of your poster.

Graphics should be:

Simple and clean

Self explanatory
Require a minimum of supplemental text
Readable from 6 feet away

Example
Total Ink > Information Ink

This is straight out of Excel. See anything unnecessary?

Example Improved Again

Total Ink = Information Ink

Grid lines: Your audience is unlikely to care about the exact values at
each data point, and the grid lines compete with the datas graphic pattern.
Legend: Why make the reader look back and forth between lines and
legend? Just label the lines - then eliminate the legend.
Axes: The labeling between major tick marks is unnecessary.

4. Whats Effective Text?

Minimize Text
Use Images and Graphics
Instead
Use short sentences
Use simple words
Avoid jargon, acronyms, and
unusual abbreviations.
TOO MUCH TEXT

As with Graphics
Make Total Ink = Information Ink

SIMPLE LANGUAGE IS BEST

Avoid needlessly complex words
Avoid unnecessary words
Use strong verbs and active voice

Examples of Passive Versus Active Voice

The voltage was displayed by

the oscilloscope.

The oscilloscope displayed the

voltage.

The feedthrough was

composed of a sapphire optical
fiber,
which was pressed against the
pyrotechnic
that was used to confine the
charge.

The feedthrough contained a

sapphire optical fiber,
which pressed against the
pyrotechnic
that contained the charge.

5. What is Effective use of Color?

Use dark letters on a light background

Avoid dark background with light letters
very tiring to read

Stick to a theme of only 2-3 colors, NO MORE!

Overly bright colors attract attention, but are tiring

Whats an Effective Layout?

Heed reader gravity

People naturally read left right, top bottom.

A column format is easy to read in a crowd.

Use headings to direct readers to key sections.
Use white space effectively and balance it with text.

How To Put a Poster Together?

THIRD: do the plan

Consider:
1. Time
Software generated posters can take whole day to
print
2. Software
3. Title and Text
4. Editing
5. Assembly

Whats Useful Software?

Microsoft PowerPoint is a good, relatively easy-to-use tool for
creating posters.
Adobe Illustrator and InDesign are even better, but more
complex and expensive.
Microsoft Excel can create graphics and export them for
PowerPoint - but you'll need to clean them up.
DeltaGraph is also a nice tool, but keep your graphs clean.
Adobe Photoshop is great for manipulating images.

Special Advantage of
Software Generated Posters

You can take a copy of the poster on your laptop or a disc

to out of town meetings.
In an emergency, you can make a new copy at a local
Printer (e.g., Kinkos).
NOTE: Always save and back-up softward posters.

Title Mechanics
Create a banner:
Title (largest)
Authors (smaller)
Institution(s) (same or smaller still)

Use

Large, Boldface type (36 - 48 point) for titles so

theyre readable from 15 - 20 feet away (at least 2 inches high)

Left justify or center
Simple, sans-serif font (e.g., Helvetica) for title (and headings)
Title Case or ALL CAPS: Plain text, no bold, underline, italic, or
shadow

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Text Mechanics
Use

large, boldface type (36 - 48 point)

for Headings
Use 24 or 28 point type for accompanying text
Left justify with ragged right margins (no centering)
Use a serif font (e.g., Times or Times New Roman)
Use sentence case and AVOID BLOCKS OF TEXT IN
ALL CAPS
Use bold, underline, and italics sparingly

Editing
Posters ALWAYS have too much text.
Strive for:

Best text
comes from
here

20% text
40% graphics
40% empty space

Condense and delete ANYTHING you can

Leave out detailed methods and vast tables of data
If it doesnt focus on your central question, LEAVE
IT OUT!

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Finally
Always acknowledge other contributors and
funding organizations
Use small type (14 - 18 point)
Always SAVE your work and make a BACKUP
Spell-check Spell-check Spell-check Spell-check
Get feedback (use 60 checklist)

How To Present a Great Poster?

1.

Prepare a five minute version of your story and point to graphics

but dont read the poster.

2.

Consider preparing a handout with additional details for people to

take away with them.

3.

Smile.

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Checklist
Appearance
1. Display attracts viewer's attention.
2. Words are easy to read from an appropriate distance (3-5 feet).
3. Poster is well organized and easy to follow.
4. Graphics and other visuals enhance presentation.
5. The poster is neat and appealing to look at.
Content
6. Content is clear and easy to understand.
7. Purpose (question) is stated clearly.
8. It is possible to see why someone might be interested in the results.
9. There is enough detail about methods to understand the results.
10. The approach taken is appropriate for the problem and technically sound.
11. Poster is free of unnecessary detail.
12. Conclusions are stated clearly.
13. Conclusions are supported by results.
Presentation
14. Presenter's response to questions demonstrated knowledge of subject matter
and project.

60-Second Poster Evaluation

Overall Appearance

Cluttered or sloppy appearance. Gives the impression of a solid mass of text and graphics, or pieces are scattered
and disconnected. Little white space.

Pleasant to look at. Pleasing use of colors, text, and graphics.

Very pleasing to look at. Particularly nice colors and graphics.

White Space

Very little. Gives the impression of a solid mass of text and graphics.

OK. Sections of the poster are separated from one another.

Lots. Plenty of room to rest the eyes. Lots of separation.

Text / Graphics Balance

Too much text. The poster gives an overwhelming impression of text only.

Not enough text. Cannot understand what the graphics are supposed to relate.

Balanced. Text and graphics are evenly dispersed in the poster. There seems to be enough text to explain the
graphics.
Text Size

Too small to view comfortably from a distance of 1-1.5 meters.

Main text OK, but text in figures too small.

Easy to read from 1-1.5 meters.

Very easy to read.

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60-Second Poster Evaluation

Organization and Flow

Cannot figure out how to move through poster.

Implicit. Headings (Introduction, Methods, etc) or other device implies organization and flow.

Explicit numbering, column bars, row bars, etc.

Author Identification

None.

Partial. Not enough information to contact author without further research. This includes missing zip codes on
addresses.

Complete. Enough information to contact author by mail, phone, or e-mail without further research.
Research Objective

Can't find.

Present, but not explicit. Buried at end of "Introduction", "Background", etc.

Explicit. This includes headings of "Objectives", "Aims", "Goals", etc.

Main Points

Can't find.

Present, but not obvious. May be imbedded in monolithic blocks of text.

Explicitly labeled (e.g., "Main Points", "Conclusions", "Results").

Summary

Absent.

Present as "Summary" "Results" or "Conclusions"

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